Copyright Statement

Abstract

Telomere dynamics vary fundamentally between endothermic populations and species as a result of differences in life history,
yet we know little about these patterns in ectotherms. In ectotherms, the relationships between climate, metabolism and life
history suggest that telomere attrition should be higher at relatively high environmental temperatures compared to relatively
low environmental temperatures, but these effects may vary between populations due to local adaptation. To address this
hypothesis, we sampled reactive oxygen species (ROS) and telomere length of lizards from warm lowland and cool highland
populations of a climatically widespread lizard species that we exposed to hot or cold basking treatments. The hot treatment
increased relative telomere length compared to the cold treatment independent of climatic origin or ROS levels. Lizards
from the cool highland region had lower ROS levels than those from the warm lowland region. Within the highland lizards,
ROS increased more in the cold basking treatment than the hot basking treatment. These results are in the opposite direction
to those predicted, suggesting that the relationships between temperature, metabolism, ROS and telomere dynamics are not
straightforward. Future work incorporating detailed understanding of the thermal reaction norms of these and other linked
traits is needed to fully understand these processes.